


diggin' on you

by adashofhope



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Bad Pick-Up Lines, F/M, Fluff and Humor, I'm so sorry, this whole fic is very irrelevant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-01
Updated: 2017-12-01
Packaged: 2019-02-09 03:08:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12878916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adashofhope/pseuds/adashofhope
Summary: the coffee shop au that no one asked for."i write a bad pick up line on your cup every time i'm your barista."





	diggin' on you

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is lowkey inspired by diggin' on you by tlc, hence the unoriginal title.
> 
> "i must admit to you, when i heard the lines you threw,  
> although it usually turns me off,  
> but this time you have turned me on,"
> 
> enjoy!

Michelle walks into the library, trying to juggle her heavy textbooks and her tea. Finally, she sets everything down on the table and looks around the library.

Liz was nowhere to be found.

Michelle places her free hand on her hip, and texts Liz.

_emjay: where are you???_

_emjay: liz, i swear to fuck_

_emjay: if you’re late because of gwen, i will FIGHT_

Someone clears their throat in front of her and Michelle looks up. When she sees Liz, she rolls her eyes endearingly and whisper-yells, “Finally!”

“Calm down, MJ. I’m only 2 minutes late.” Liz says.

Michelle gasps in faux shock, “Back in high school, you would’ve been on my ass if I were ever late to Decathlon.”

Liz grabs her tea and takes a sip, “Ah, but you never were.”

Michelle rolls her eyes and opens her textbook. She starts discussing her plans for their assignment when Liz’s laughter gets her attention.

She furrows her eyebrows, “Were you even listening?”

Liz ignored her question and hands MJ her cup, “I think you’ve got a secret admirer, MJ.”

“Wha…?” MJ is dumbfounded when she looks at her cup.

On her cup, scrawled in black ink are the words, _if you were a transformer, you’d be optimus fine._

Michelle narrows her eyes at Liz, “Did you do this?”

Liz raises her hands in defense, “I didn’t! How did you not notice this?”

Michelle looks down at her cup thoughtfully, “I was rushing! This assignment is urgent, you know.”

They get back to talking about their assignment. An hour later, as Michelle is jotting down notes, she catches Liz eyeing the cup and snickering to herself.

She throws her eraser at Liz, as some sort of retaliation.

Liz crosses her arms and places them on the table, “I think it’s cute.”

Michelle rolls her eyes, not once looking up from her notebook, “It’s probably some college DudeBro trying to get in my pants.”

 

 

Michelle is very talented.

She went for dance lessons when she was in high school and she’s really good at art. She also has the voice of an angel –as Liz would say.

However, she never knew she could run in heels.

Sure, her overbearing parents were coming over to visit her in college and she really wanted to prove to them that she was a responsible, functioning adult who had a social life and handled college very well. (Totally not the case, but Michelle is a fairly good actress.)

That’s why she’s sprinting to her favourite coffee shop, fresh out of a meeting with her professor as she’s on the phone with her Mom –who’s currently informing her that they’ll be at her apartment in half an hour.

Here’s the problem: her apartment is a mess.

She can’t help the proud grin on her face when she makes it to the coffee shop in one piece, making a mental note in her head to inform Liz of her newly discovered talent.

Her mom hangs up, finally.

Her order is rushed, and she’s mildly concerned that they’re going to get it wrong but that’s the least of her worries. She could deal with getting her order mixed up, if it meant her parents would walk into a clean apartment.

She removes her high ponytail and runs a hand through her hair because she’s getting a headache, and she doesn’t have the time to deal with a headache when she’s got her parents coming over.

Horrifyingly, she realises, she used to sketch people in crisis but now she’s one of them.

She shudders at the thought and composes herself, regaining her neutral expression.

Can’t let people know that she’s actually human.

Her name is called and she grabs her tea (which is surprisingly exactly right.) She’s out of the café in seconds.

 

Everything goes smoothly.

Her parents do not think she’s a hot mess, and her plan works.

She’s actually enjoying her time spent with her parents when her dad asks her what tea she’s drinking.

She asks him to try it, because her dad is the one who introduced her to tea. Her dad pauses and exchanges a look with her mom.

“What?” she asks, slightly irritated that she’s out of the loop.

Mr Jones ignores her and hands the tea to her mother.

Michelle’s mom smirks at her creepily and Michelle gets a bad feeling about whatever this is.

“MJ, you never told me you had admirers!”

She grabs the paper cup and stares at the scrawl written on it.

There are two different sentences, but they’re all striked out. Written at the bottom of the cup, she sees it, _you have really pretty hair._ Next to it is a little smiley face and Michelle looks up to find her dad staring at her and her mom smirking at her.

Michelle groans at her mom’s expression, “Mom! Don’t get any ideas! I don’t have a boyfriend, or an admirer.” She directs her last sentence at her Dad but he’s not convinced.

She places her face in her hands, “It’s just some boy at the café, messing with me. I doubt he believes that he can actually win me over with his lame pick-up lines.”

“I’d like to meet him,” her dad announces, and her mom agrees, to her dismay.

She lets out a chuckle at the situation Café Boy has gotten her into, “I don’t even know him!”

“Bullshit.”

“Anna! Language!” her dad scolds and her mom smiles at him all the same.

“Jesus,” MJ mutters under her breath. “Fine, you both can meet me at the café tomorrow, to look for whatever it is that you’re expecting.”

Mrs Jones clasps her hands together excitedly, “I can’t wait to meet my son-in-law!”

“MOM!” Michelle groans, burying her face in a nearby cushion as her parents laugh at her.

 

She gets a cup of tea the next day, with some nerdy ass pick-up line that she has to explain to her parents. She silently thanks whatever Superior Being above that Café Boy has kept it strictly PG.

It reads, _are you a compound of beryllium and barium? because you’re a total BaBe._

Her dad, in all of his intimidating businessman, suit-wearing glory, decides that he likes this nerd who keeps on writing cheesy pick-up lines on his daughter’s tea orders.

When she tells Liz about it, she has to inch her phone away from her ear, because she’s laughing that hard.

She does go up to the counter and inquire about the lame pick-up line on her paper cup. A familiar looking boy about her age, with a deep voice and a huge grin on his face, tells her that the barista she’s looking for isn’t around at the moment.

“Leeds?” she inquires. “What are you doing here?”

“I work here!”

Michelle scrunches her nose up in confusion and Ned rolls his eyes, in the way that he always did at her. It reminds her of her high school days, “How did you even order your teas without noticing me?”

“Hey! Don’t change the topic. We fell out of touch after high school and now I find out, you’re working at my favourite café?”

Ned has the decency to look ashamed. MJ mirrors his expression.

Quietly, she says, “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too.”

Then, she holds up her paper cup, “Have you been doing this?”

Ned bursts into giggles, and MJ feels a tiny bit nostalgic. Not that she’d ever say it to his face.

MJ glares at him and he raises both his hands in defense, “Trust me. The barista you’re looking for is not me.”

Michelle groans, “This isn’t over, Leeds.”

 

 

Her parents stay for a couple of days, and leave. Mid-terms come sooner than she expects and she spends all her time huddled at her desk, going over her study material.

She gets a B on her assignment with Liz, and Liz beats herself up over it. Michelle tries to comfort her, saying that it isn’t even that bad of a grade.

Michelle is a hypocrite.

She’d be lying if she said that she wasn’t disappointed at the grade she got.

Her parents tell her to buck up and that B’s aren’t accepted in the Jones’ household when they hear about it. She nods, her heart sinking as she overthinks the situation profusely.

She has a mental breakdown one night.

No one talks her down.

No one tells her that it’s going to be alright.

She doesn’t sleep that night, overwhelmed with the feeling of loneliness.

Michelle wakes up the next morning, telling herself that she can’t afford to have another mental breakdown.

She puts minimal effort into her appearance. Her hair is up in a messy bun, and she dresses in a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. She makes her way down to the café and starts studying.

MJ orders a peppermint tea, and when she gets her order, there’s a little drawing on the napkin that makes her smile. It’s a poorly drawn animation of herself with a bright smile on her face. Her animation is wearing a pair of heels, the outfit she wore when she had that interview with her professor, and a cape. She seems to be running towards something.

The words above spell, ‘ **S U P E R H E R O.’**

She catches up with Ned, who occasionally helps her with some of her questions, and she gets little cartoon drawings on her napkin, every day without fail. Sometimes, she gets cute little notes on there. Sometimes, they’re just compliments about her hair.

 

 

One day, she orders a cup of tea to-go, because she’s supposed to be meeting Liz at the library in a few minutes.

She gets her cup of tea and unknowingly glances at her paper cup.

There it is.

Her pick-up line.

She roots her feet to the ground, and stares at the words written sloppily on her cup.

_I’d give up candy if I could have a piece of that ass._

Michelle holds back her laughter, and waits for the customers to clear out of the line. Finally, she approaches the counter.

“Ned,” she greets, holding her cup behind her back.

“Michelle!” Ned smiles, in that friendly way.

“Hey, do you have any idea who wrote this?” she asks, holding up her cup,

Ned giggles, covering his mouth with the palm of his hand. “I’ll be just a minute. I think I know who you’re looking for.”

Michelle texts Liz and the other girl is more than happy to delay their meet-up.

Ned returns, “He’ll be back soon. He’s always rushing off somewhere. We get off our shift in like, 15 minutes.”

Michelle considers just leaving, because _is it really worth it?_

She nods anyway, and returns to her table. Give her a break. This is one of the most interesting things to happen to her and she’s not about to skip out on it just because of some sort of study session. Besides, she’s lowkey interested to meet the nerd that’s been hitting on her for the past month.

She’s typing away on her laptop, when she hears the conversation going on behind the counter.

It’s a high pitched voice speaking, out of breath and rushed, “Thanks for covering for me, Ned.”

Wait a second. She knows that voice.

“It’s ok, dude. Our shift’s over anyway. Plus, you’ve got a hot date waiting for you.”

Michelle lifts her eyebrows slightly at that.

“Oh, no.”

“Oh, yes.”

But, it doesn’t work because Ned’s shoving a lean, slightly muscled, lanky teenage boy to her table. This isn’t any teenage boy, though, it’s Peter Parker.

Peter Parker, her best friend in high school and the boy she harboured a huge crush on for 4 years of her life. They were almost something, so close, when he started dating Gwen Stacy. She gave up on him, sparing herself the heartbreak and fell out of touch with Peter and Ned. A few months into her freshman year of college, she finds out that Gwen had broken up with Peter a week after school ended. Now, she was dating Liz and the three of them became best friends.

Now, she finds out that Peter is the nerd who’s been hitting on her?

To say this whole situation was messy, was an understatement.

She glares at Ned for a nanosecond before relaxing into an almost bored expression, “Peter Parker. Isn’t this rich?”

“Michelle…” he laughs nervously.

She maintains the expression on her face although she wants nothing more than to punch and kiss Peter right now, “Oh, sit down, will you?”

Peter fiddles with his fingers, no doubt, thinking of ways to start a conversation with her. She decides to cut him some slack, “You can call me MJ, you know.”

Peter grins for a second but then, he tries to surpress his grin by biting on his lip, which infuriates MJ even more.

“So,” she starts, picking up her paper cup. “You wanna explain this?”

Peter turns beet red and she laughs along with Ned.

Ned hits his arm, “Really? That’s the one you went with? ‘A piece of that ass?’”

“Ned!” Peter scolds, nudging him.

“You suck, Peter. I can’t believe you actually wrote a pick-up line on my cup when my parents were right next to me.”

“I just told you that you had pretty hair!”

“It’s true. That’s all he ever talks about,” Ned provides commentary.

“Ned!”

Ned backs up and leaves the two of them alone.

“Well, that had the result of my parents welcoming their mysterious, new son-in-law to the family,” she says sarcastically.

Peter blushes, and she can see it all the way down to his neck.

“Hey, try one of your pick-up lines on me,” Michelle suggests, for her own personal amusement, of course.

“MJ…” he trails off, groaning.

“Come on!” she nudges him.

“Are you, uh, did you uh, fall out of heaven because you’re,” and he slams his finger against the wooden table. “Ow, shit! Fuck, this wasn’t-“

Michelle stares at him for a second. He’s flailing around, sucking on his index finger while muttering a string of curse words under his breath. She bites her lip.

Oh, what the hell.

“Wanna go out?” she asks randomly.

“You mean, like on a date?” Peter asks hopefully.

Michelle leans back, “No, on a killing spree around Boston.”

Peter chuckles nervously, “Uh, I’m free tonight.”

“So, we’ll meet here at 6?” she suggests.

“Yeah!” Peter grins. He turns to Ned and gives him two thumbs up.

Michelle rolls her eyes at Ned’s thumbs up because, _of course._

“Oh, by the way, Gwen is dating Liz now and they’re both my best friends,” she blurts, because they’re both definitely going to have to meet up with Peter at some point.

“Oh yeah, I know. Liz was the one who gave me that pick up line,” he says, gesturing to her cup.

“You’re lucky you’re cute,” she rolls her eyes.

Peter smirks, and she covers his face with her hand, “Don’t look at me like that!”

Peter grabs hold of her hand and kisses it daintily, “Can’t help it, MJ.”

“Ugh, gross.”

“You think I’m cute.” Peter counters.

“Don’t make me regret this,” she teases.

“You won’t,” Peter promises. He stands up abruptly, “I’ve got to go. See you at 6?”

“Yeah,” MJ agrees.

“See you later, MJ.” He presses a kiss to her cheek and MJ’s heart melts.

The universe really did have a whole other agenda for her.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm @/softboyholland on tumblr! send me prompts and things about spideychelle you want me to write, because i really want to write about them but i've got no ideas!
> 
> also, i highkey didn't know how to end this soz.


End file.
